Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World

Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize, renowned historian Margaret MacMillan's best-selling Paris 1919 is the story of six remarkable months that changed the world. At the close of WWI, between January and July of 1919, delegates from around the world converged on Paris under the auspices of peace. New countries were created, old empires were dissolved, and for six months, Paris was the center of the world.

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819 the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with 20 crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than 90 days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, and disease and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival.

Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

The decade of the 1790s has been called the age of passion. Fervor ran high as rival factions battled over the course of the new republic - each side convinced that the others' goals would betray the legacy of the Revolution so recently fought and so dearly won. All understood as well that what was at stake was not a moment's political advantage, but the future course of the American experiment in democracy. In this epochal debate, no two figures loomed larger than Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

The Guns of August

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, historian Barbara Tuchman brings to life the people and events that led up to World War I. This was the last gasp of the Gilded Age, of Kings and Kaisers and Czars, of pointed or plumed hats, colored uniforms, and all the pomp and romance that went along with war. How quickly it all changed...and how horrible it became.

The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade

From the schism between Rome and Constantinople to the rise of the T'ang Dynasty, from the birth of Muhammad to the crowning of Charlemagne, this erudite book tells the fascinating, often violent story of kings, generals, and the peoples they ruled.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A moving coming-of-age story set in the 1900s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the lives of 11-year-old Francie Nolan, her younger brother Neely, and their parents, Irish immigrants who have settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Johnny Nolan is as loving and fanciful as they come, but he is also often drunk and out of work, unable to find his place in the land of opportunity.

The Coming Fury: The Centennial History of the Civil War, Volume 1

>The New York Times hailed this trilogy as “one of the greatest historical accomplishments of our time”. With stunning detail and insights, America’s foremost Civil War historian recreates the war from its opening months to its final, bloody end. Each volume delivers a complete listening experience. The Coming Fury (Volume 1) covers the split Democratic Convention in the spring of 1860 to the first battle of Bull Run.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to previously untapped data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb but later confronted the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s.

Gettysburg

Best-selling author and acclaimed Civil War expert Stephen W. Sears, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “arguably the preeminent living historian of the war’s eastern theater,” crafts what will stand the test of time as the definitive history of the greatest battle ever fought on American soil. Drawing on years of research, Sears focuses on the big picture, capturing the entire essence of the momentous three day struggle while offering fresh insights that will surprise even the best versed Civil War buffs.

Hiroshima

A journalistic masterpiece. John Hersey transports us back to the streets of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 - the day the city was destroyed by the first atomic bomb. Told through the memories of six survivors, Hiroshima is a timeless, powerful classic that will awaken your heart and your compassion. In this new edition, Hersey returns to Hiroshima to find the survivors - and to tell their fates in an eloquent and moving final chapter.

The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach

A white-knuckle account of the First Infantry Division’s harrowing D-Day assault on the eastern sector of Omaha Beach - acclaimed historian John C. McManus has written a gripping history that will stand as the last word on this titanic battle. Nicknamed the Big Red One, First Division had fought from North Africa to Sicily, earning a reputation as stalwart warriors on the front lines and rabble-rousers in the rear. Yet on D-Day, these jaded combat veterans melded with fresh-faced replacements to accomplish one of the most challenging and deadly missions ever.

All Creatures Great and Small

In this first volume of his memoirs, then-newly-qualified vet James Herriot arrives in the small Yorkshire village of Darrowby, and he has no idea what to expect. How will he get on with his new boss? The local farmers? And what will the animals think? This program is filled with hilarious and touching tales of the unpredictable Siegfried Farnon, his charming student brother Tristan, and Herriot's first encounters with a beautiful girl named Helen.

The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight

Gifted storyteller Winston Groom, the best-selling author of Forrest Gump, has written the fascinating story of three extraordinary heroes who defined aviation during the great age of flight: Charles Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbacker, and Jimmy Doolittle. These cleverly interwoven tales of their heart-stopping adventures take us from the feats of World War I through the heroism of World War II and beyond, including daring military raids and survival at sea, and will appeal to fans of Unbroken, The Greatest Generation, and Flyboys.

Angela's Ashes

Why we think it’s a great listen: There’s no gentle way to put this – Frank McCourt’s performance of Angela’s Ashes is just better than the Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Frank McCourt shares his sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking story of growing up poor, Irish, and Catholic in the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes.

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan

In January of 1973 Richard Nixon announced the end of the Vietnam War and prepared for a triumphant second term - until televised Watergate hearings revealed his White House as little better than a mafia den. The next president declared upon Nixon’s resignation “our long national nightmare is over” - but then congressional investigators exposed the CIA for assassinating foreign leaders. The collapse of the South Vietnamese government rendered moot the sacrifice of some 58,000 American lives.

The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War

The Arsenal of Democracy tells the incredible story of how Detroit answered the call, centering on Henry Ford and his tortured son Edsel, who, when asked if they could deliver 50,000 airplanes, made an outrageous claim: Ford Motor Company would erect a plant that could yield a “bomber an hour”. Critics scoffed: Ford didn’t make planes; they made simple, affordable cars. But bucking his father’s resistance, Edsel charged ahead.

Caesar: Life of a Colossus

Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of Julius Caesar's life, Adrian Goldsworthy covers not only the great Roman emperor's accomplishments as charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator but also lesser-known chapters. Ultimately, Goldsworthy realizes the full complexity of Caesar's character and shows why his political and military leadership continues to resonate some 2,000 years later.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Why we think it’s a great listen: Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel begs to be read aloud, and Ruby Dee answers the challenge with utter perfection, capturing the wide range of characters and their diverse accents with grace and power. Their Eyes Were Watching God is the luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930s, whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to 70 years.

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution

Boston in 1775 is an island city occupied by British troops after a series of incendiary incidents by patriots who range from sober citizens to thuggish vigilantes. After the Boston Tea Party, British and American soldiers and Massachusetts residents have warily maneuvered around each other until April 19, when violence finally erupts at Lexington and Concord.

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

This is a sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans, and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.

A Moveable Feast

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. It is his classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, filled with irreverent portraits of other expatriate luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein; tender memories of his first wife, Hadley; and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft.

The Day of the Jackal

One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the electrifying story of an anonymous Englishman who in, the spring of 1963, was hired by Colonel Marc Rodin, operations chief of the O.A.S., to assassinate General de Gaulle.

My Life as a Man

At its heart lies the marriage of Peter and Maureen Tarnopol, a gifted young writer and the woman who wants to be his muse but who instead is his nemesis. Their union is based on fraud and shored up by moral blackmail, but it is so perversely durable that, long after Maureen’s death, Peter is still trying—and failing—to write his way free of it.

Publisher's Summary

National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2006

The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told. Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, going from sod huts to new framed houses to huddling in basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out.

He follows their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Drawing on the voices of those who stayed and survived, those who, now in their eighties and nineties, will soon carry their memories to the grave, Egan tells a story of endurance and heroism against the backdrop of the Great Depression.

Egan captures the very voice of the time, its grit, pathos, and abiding heroism, as only great history can. Combining the human drama of Isaac's Storm with the sweep of The American People in the Great Depression, The Worst Hard Time is a lasting and important work of American history.

Bonus: In partnership with Audible and Playtone, the television and film producer behind the award-winning series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, this audiobook includes an original introduction, written and read by acclaimed documentarian Ken Burns. For more from Audible and Playtone, click here.

This book is so well written and researched that for me it opened my eyes to a region of America that I knew little about. The story telling added human texture and a deep understanding of the disaster of the dust bowl. I came away from the book able to clearly see why and how it all happened. But more than that I learned about how Oklahoma and the plains were settled. The strength of the people who moved there and stayed there-- no matter what. Storms, isolation, drought, you name it, trouble of every kind and they coped and stuck with it. The book was clearly written by a man totally in love with the place--it shone through on every page. It wasn't an easy story to hear--lots goes wrong--but it was worth it. The best kind of history lesson is a story well told. This book draws the reader in and captivates. Excellent narration. Highly recommended.

For someone whose knowledge of the Dust Bowl era consists of watching the movie "Grapes of Wrath", I found this book to be a fascinating look into the "dirty thirties", as this period in time was called. By the end of the book, I was very glad I had chosen this selection. The author does, however, jump from historical facts to personal accounts, making the listen a bit confusing at times. I also felt that the narration was a bit rushed. Overall, though, if you like to read about what I call "neglected history", this would be a good choice.

Outstanding book of history, narrative history nicely mixed with pieces of economic history (but not boring) and lessons about the connections between economics and the environment (thankfully not preachy at all). The author weaves ordinary history by narrating the lives of the affected people on the Great Plains, relying on recollections, diaries, letters, contemporary (mostly local) news accounts, so that the reader is successfully sucked into the time itself. I came away with a new appreciation of what I had already read, or heard, or seen in the popular media (most affectingly the great movie version of Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath"). I highly recommend this book (I have already bought 2 hard copies to send to others in my family who, unfortunately, have yet to buy iPods). The narration is also excellent.

This book fits my 2 favorite criteria - historical & novel. It taught me backgound history about my country that I never learned in school, neither did my husband, nor my brother-in-law, nor my son. I'd often heard about the "dust bowl" without ever really understanding how it came about; its impact on the physical charactistics of the land or the psyche of its people. I knew that many inhabitants of the area tried to distance themselves if they were unfortunate enough to have been born there, but never understood why until I had lived with these people and internalized their everyday hardships & unbelieveable heatbreak. The author does an excellent job of intertwining the devastation of the local people, all the while giving you hope that perhaps someday things would get better. It is one of the finest accounts of American history that I have ever resd.

The Grapes of Wrath seemed like a hard time, but this story is much, much worse. It's hard to imagine how people could remain living in a place where the elements were so unkind to them. It is a great lesson about Mother Earth's payback when we misuse her bounty.

Out of the 12 books I bought this year, this was my favorite. It's the perfect kind of history book: very informative, but written through the eyes of the people who were there. So you come away with both a detailed yet grand understanding of the Dust Bowl. It's also not one of those history books that reads like dry toast. I couldn't put it down. If you like John Steinbeck's books, you'll love this one. Tim Egan is a great storyteller. This narrarator was also great. I went out of my way to find other books he's read. But I'm not as picky as many listeners are.

Some reviewers compared this book to "The Grapes of Wrath," which although fiction, gave one family's experience of the Dust Bowl Era. If you're looking for a ficionalized book, this is not for you. But if history is your genre, this is a must read. My family were inheriters of the Great Dust Bowl, and many found there way to California and Colorado to escape the tragic living conditions, especially for poor migrant farm workers. But some in my family stayed in Oklahoma and Arkansas to weather the storm, and many still remain. I had NO idea how pervasive this cataclysmic event was to our nation. This book was told with captivating narrative, with an excellent reader, whom I will search out again. I was blown away, so to speak, by the intensity of these huge black clouds and mounds of dirt piled high like snowdrifts, and silt suffocating the lungs of man and beast. Much is even told of the effects of the climate on areas as far east as New York City. Unreal!!! This book almost rated a 5 star from me, but at times it was a little dry with it's littany of hisorical facts. But I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know the horrors of what man can do to the environment in such a short time, while devasting his own life, his communtiy and into the far realms. Makes me think more seriously about our part in global warming. Hmmm!

Having read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" I didn't think I'd ever come across another book that so graphically described the pain so many of our forefathers had to endure just to eak out a living in a country with so much abundance. The fortitude of these pioneers is beyond belief. This is not just a historical account of an era in America's history it will move you to your sole.

If you enjoy clear-eyed views of some of the tragic mistakes made in our country's past--and insight into how we could avoid repeating them today--this is a good listen.

Is it bleak? Well, yes. But that's a lot of the point. Sometimes people seem heroic in their ability to withstand hardship, but sometimes they lose sight of when they really need to quit. [Eg. when you, your animials and children are dying, that might be a good time to get out.] There's a lot of both in this tale of survival in places where people just shouldn't have been settling and doing the things they did to the land.

One note on the narration. I think you either like Patrick Lawlor's style or you don't. I personally became annoyed with his voice imitations (especially of women and regional accents) and his overall style, to the point where it began to color my view of the book itself. About halfway through I realized it reminded me of another book I'd listened to, but couldn't place it. I looked back through my Audible library and found it: "Three Cups of Tea." Sure enough, Patrick Lawlor narrated it.

Now I wonder whether my unfavorable impression of *that* book was because I found Lawlor annoying then too. Suffice it to say, his narration style does not work for me, and I will be mindful to check the narrator as I purchase Audible books in the future.

The Great Depression was depressing, just know that before you download this selection. With that caveat in mind, this is a masterfully researched, well written tale of an important, but under studied area of American history.

However, it is essentially the tale of a small group of well meaning people going from hard earned success to travail, disaster, and ruin. It is a little like reading an American Book of Job set in the Texas Panhandle without the uplifting ending. There is no redemption. I wish he had gone on told a few more stories of personal success at the end even if it they were stories of people that left the Great Plains or maybe served with distinction in World War II or something.

However, I am certain that was not his point. His point was to show how development without concern for ecological consequences can, has, and will again lead to social and economic disaster. If you live or grew up in that great swath of the United States from Central Texas to North Dakota this is something you should make yourself read. It will answer a lot of questions that you have probably considered in passing about the development of the Great Plains and, more importantly, how the area should be developed today.